Sleep - toddler and baby and the juggling act!

Sleep is a reoccurring topic here at Baby Steps. I´m sure there are a lot of readers who feel like we do - sleep is vital! Not just for the children but for us as parents too.

 

Now that our 2 year old is settled into nursery, we are seeing a better sleep pattern from him. We have had a few full nights and others with just one brief night  waking. We have, however, had to limit his nap to just one hour. We found that when he slept longer in the day he was taking a long time to fall asleep and waking more frequently at night. I guess somewhere during this year he may drop this nap completely (ahhh then what will I do)?

 

Our (almost) 6 month old has learnt that we go out of sight and he doesn´t like it one bit! At 3 months he was sleeping very well even full nights or just one night waking around 4am for a feed. At the 4 month sleep regression (where babies learn to fall asleep by themselves) we noticed he was beginning to wake more frequently and looking to feed each time. For the first two days I fed him, assuming he must be going through a growth spurt, but he began to wake even more often. I went on a sleep research frenzy and came across the no-cry sleep solution by Elizabeth Pantley. The book is designed to very gently and gradually help your baby to sleep all night. As he had been a good sleeper and I knew he was waking for comfort not hunger, I searched the book and found a very important tip that I had never heard before. Never let the baby suck to sleep - whether bottle, dummy or breast feeding. Ok, so how do you stop this once its a habit? By letting baby suck until they are nearly asleep then gently removing. If he cries replace and repeat. This takes patience and some nights I would remove 7-10 times before he fell asleep but gradually he was able to fall asleep by himself and stay that way for a while.

 

After another month he started to wake more frequently again. Now he wasn´t having a dummy and I wasn´t feeding him to sleep so what to do here? I returned to a method we used with our older son which I discovered from Tracy Hogg the baby whisperer. The pick up, put down method. Her you pick up the baby then place him back down (all the way down even if he´s crying) then repeat until he is calm and drifts off to sleep alone.

This last week he has been waking more again but now I just need to rub or pat his tummy and he goes back to sleep. Every night waking I do this until he sleeps. If he takes a long time to go to sleep or wakes again within 30 minutes, I give him a feed and make sure I finish the feed before he is asleep.

 

Here´s hoping they both sleep a full night (the same full night please) very soon. It may seem like a lot of work but it´s worth it when you are feeling sleep deprived. I´ve found it very hard especially when my husband has been travelling and I have to deal with ALL the wakings alone (sometimes both of them at the same time)!

 

I recommend both of the books I have used as they both have really good ways to help you teach your baby to sleep. Both use no-cry methods which I prefer. I would say though, each family is different, each baby too, only do what you can cope with and if it´s working for you and your family - then it´s just fine. Nobody else has to go through it every night and nobody else knows your baby like you do.

 

Good luck and good sleeps for all parents and babies :)

Holiday sleep – before, during and after the trip

As many of us have travelled over the holidays I felt it may be of interest to write about sleep while travelling. 

Most of us find it strange to sleep in a new place but what must it be like for your baby who has barely left their own home and is suddenly in a house full of strangers having to sleep in a bed that isn’t their own?

This is how our little guy coped and helped us guide him through the toughest sleep moments so we could all enjoy our holiday abroad.

As you’ve heard me say many times before, preparation is key. When purchasing our flights we had in mind that our boy would be having his night sleep on the plane and would need as little time travelling as possible. We managed to get a flight that left before bed time and I planned to put him to bed on the first flight and gracefully carry him onto the second flight where I imagined him sleeping until the breakfast came round in the morning. Well, almost. The only problem was that I didn’t think through security and second check in etc. Poor little man had quite a shock when he woke up away from the comfortable mummy to be hanging mid air facing strangers as we went through the security checks. After a few tears he settled down but decided airports are far too exciting a place to be able to go off to sleep. By the time we boarded the second (and longest) flight he was exhausted and wanting more milk (not part of his routine). Luckily I had planned for such an event and as he wasn’t to be provided with food on the flight I had packed extra milk and any snacks I thought he could eat on a plane. He slept well on the long haul flight and we arrived not too groggy the next day. 

The first night at Grandma and Grandad’s was, as expected, a little rocky. A couple of hours before bed we went up to his room with his home bedtime toy and cover and played there for 10 minutes getting used to it. I showed him where mummy and daddy would be sleeping and although he’s too young to understand this, it’s still important to explain things to him. That night he took a little longer to go to sleep than he would have at home and woke a couple of times during the night. Here we remained consistent with our home routine of lying him back down being sure to reassure him as he was in new surroundings. After that each night got better.

Then we went to visit his aunt and uncle. Another new house and another new bed. We brought his travel tent with us so he would have a familiar place to sleep but even with this it can be tricky for him to rest easy in a new house with new sounds. We stuck to our routine as before and had two ok nights with him.

We returned to his grandparents when he caught a cold and this disrupted sleep again. We were conscious that his mouth was dry in the night and that he needed water a couple of times. We maintained a relaxed but firm approach throughout the few nights he was unwell and took turns to get up with him so we could also enjoy our holidays. One great thing when you travel as a family or to family is that there are always plenty of people to keep an eye on the kids while you have 40 min kip on the sofa! Our boy became quite clingy while he was under the weather but we tried not to pander to him and kept him as closely to his routine as possible.

After we returned he caught a bad flu and spent a few days being up at night and generally quite poorly but we again maintained our routine and gave him more comfort and time to re-adapt to life at home.

With careful planning and consistency we managed to have a relaxing fun holiday with calm flights and a smooth transition back to home-life.

We hope you all had wonderful holidays and wish you all a very Happy New Year – 2013

Sleep at 7 months

Things have changed. 

My boy is now having his teeth brushed before going to sleep and this has been a little tricky to get into his routine as it wakes him from his drowsy milk slumber and he is pretty unhappy about it all. However we are persisting and once brushed we put him into bed and leave him to fall asleep alone. As he is now on the go he often gets off his mattress a couple of times but we silently go back in and put him back on then leave the room again. Usually this is repeated once or twice and he falls off to sleep within five minutes or so. I no longer have to sit beside him or pick him up to get him off to sleep. 

During the night he still wakes a few times but he no longer cries. We just put him back on his mattress if he comes off or cover him and leave the room and he goes back to sleep. He was waking 3 or 4 times and having one feed but is now waking once or twice still having one feed. We are feeling more positive about his sleep patterns and getting a little more sleep ourselves.

Naps have changed too! 

He has lengthened his naps to anywhere from 1 hour to 1 ½ hours and goes to sleep quickly alone. I often have to go in once or twice to put him back on his mattress but he is usually asleep within 10 minutes of putting him in his room. I now read a quick story to him before putting him in bed and this settles him although I am careful to watch for irritable signs and cut the story short if I see he’s too tired. He has 2 naps now and sometimes a catnap when we are in the car or out for our walk. These longer naps leave him much more rested and he is able to stay awake for up to 3 hours between naps and goes to bed 10 to 15 minutes later and is getting up in the morning any time after 6. 

We feel that great progress is being made and we have hope for a full night’s sleep in the near future!

Travel-short haul

The first holiday.

On-board and ready to go

It’s so exciting but then you think, how am I going to cope with a baby on a plane, taxi, bus with the heat, sleeping in a new place, feeding and changing and activity time. You start to feel that perhaps it’s just not worth it but you deserve a break or will it just be more work. Here’s how we planned and executed our first holiday.

We took a trip to the North-East of Brazil to visit our boy’s uncle. It is a long trip including 2 flights one lasting just over an hour the second over 2 hours. To fly out I was on my own as hubby was already there on a business trip which is why we decided to use the opportunity to visit. I must admit it was quite daunting thinking I would have to do the first flights alone. I've heard how babies scream through a whole flight or start getting travel sick and dread started to seep in. However I decided I needed to be super organised so that I could evict any mishaps and have the smoothest trip I possibly could.

First I had to work out the logistics of getting the boy up at 4.30am to get to the airport and decided the best thing was to pack his clothes in my hand luggage and take him in his pyjamas and sleepy bag. It’s good to remember that planes can be cold but airports hot so I had vests and long sleeved t-shirts and trousers and socks and then if he was very cold I still had his sleepy bag which meant I could avoid taking a blanket on-board as they can be very bulky and take up precious hand-luggage space. The next thing was his food. I wouldn't arrive at my destination until after 2pm so I would need a morning milk, breakfast, snack milk, lunch and water to hand. That’s a lot of food and liquid and I was concerned about the weight of my hand luggage as my guy is a bit of a gannet when it comes to food. I made up two bottles (I suggest having bottles ready even if you are breast feeding as it is really tricky to feed while taking off in the plane and often this is when baby needs his milk!) then decided that instead of his regular breakfast of porridge with stewed apple and toast he would have to make do with bread and butter and a banana. I made him a fresh lunch of vegetables and tinned tuna as I was concerned that it may be difficult to heat the food and if it was frozen or meat it would need to be piping hot. My concerns were correct so I was really glad I had something that he could eat cold. I also packed a bottle of water but wasn't sure if I would be allowed to take this on-board (I was but not sure if every airline allows this). I packed milk powder too in case I was really delayed and needed his next milk feed (I didn't but you can bet if I hadn't packed it I’d have needed it!). I also packed a couple of small books and some plastic light toys the wipes and nappies and some alcohol gel. I also brought a t-shirt for myself as I imagined that if he did get travel sick it would probably be all over me so at least I could change my t-shirt if this happened (again I was in luck and didn't need it).

So, I woke him at 4.30 after I had everything ready by the door so that I could lift him straight into the taxi and not have to wake him too much. I had hoped he might drift off to sleep again on the way but he was far too interested in being up in the middle of the night.  With a baby in arms you have full priority and if travelling alone get plenty of help from airport staff and I actually began to feel quite important! We boarded and I let my boy stand up a bit and play on the floor in front of my seat to use a bit of his energy. He was very interested in everything that was happening and was shooting smiles at every person who got on the plane. For take-off I gave him his milk which I had put off giving him before as I was concerned he would need to suck to help him to unblock his ears. He fell asleep drinking and woke up just before we landed and didn’t seem affected by the pressure on the way down.  What a star! So into the airport and 3 hours to kill... I had already decided that today was not the day to worry about him being dirty so I let him crawl around on the floor in a space where he wouldn’t get in anyone’s way. The gel came in very handy to clean him after as his hands were pretty grubby. People were very kind and he made lots of friends! The second flight began as the first and he slept for half of it. Once he was up I let him play by my feet and fed him by putting the seat-belt around him and sitting on the floor in front of him. He was very excited by his new surroundings and we were fortunate to have the full front 3 seats to ourselves so plenty of space to play and look out the window. All in all I was very impressed that it had gone so smoothly.

Snoozing in the hammock

Playing in the tent in the airport

When it comes to sleep outside the house it can be very tricky setting the same scene and getting the baby to sleep and to stay asleep. A few months ago we decided we would need to have a bed to travel with as we will be doing plenty of travelling in the next few years and with this in mind we purchased a travel tent. It has been one of the best baby items we have bought and he is happy to sleep and play there and as we use it at home often it is very familiar and smells like home. We were also able to put it up in the airport when we had a 3 hour stop -over so he could play and sleep in comfort. As soon as we got to the place we were staying I set up the tent (which is so fast and very mummy friendly) and let him play inside. When it was time for a nap I kept the simple routine of a cuddle, quick story and into bed and he went off to sleep fine. At night the same thing but he did wake more often than he would have at home but I did expect that as the climate was very different and there were different sounds to those he was used to.

Touching the fish at the aquarium

We managed to borrow a pushchair which was fantastic and we took off in the morning to explore the city. We found an aquarium and as the temperature was rising we decided it would be the perfect place to visit to keep cool and entertain our little guy. He really enjoyed seeing all the fish and they even had an interactive pool where he could touch some sea creatures.

It was a fantastic holiday and all my apprehensions have lessened as it was such a success.

Buy the tent on amazon at 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/NS-Associates-Large-Travel-Centre/dp/B000HK8DDE/ref=sr_1_2?s=baby&ie=UTF8&qid=1348852693&sr=1-2

Aquarium in Aracaju http://www.tamar.org.br/interna.php?cod=185